Arturo Guzman Decena

Arturo Guzman Decena (13 January 1976-21 November 2002) was the founder of the Los Zetas mercenary group, which consisted of former commandos of the Mexican Army.

Biography
Arturo Guzman Decena was born on 13 January 1976 in Puebla, Mexico, and he joined the Mexican Army as a teenager to escape the poverty that his family had faced back home. He earned a position in the special forces by the mid-1990s due to his military talent, and he received counter-insurgency, explosive, and apprehension training from the United States and Israel. Guzman Decena had no morals, however, and he took bribes from the Gulf Cartel while he served in the military, ultimately leading to his desertion in 1997 and his junction with the Gulf Cartel. He recruited other former members of the Mexican military into "Los Zetas", whose name came from Guzman Decena's military callsign, "Z-1". Guzman Decena worked as the right-hand man of Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cardenas Guillen until 21 November 2002, when he entered a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where he snorted a line of cocaine and drank hard. He then headed to see his mistress, and he had his mercenaries take over traffic management to prevent him from being interrupted. A neighbor called the police, which then called in the Mexican Army; Guzman Decena was unable to defend himself, and he was gunned down.